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Germany and healthcare

BH

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I asked a gentleman in the healthcare field if he thought we would ever have true universal health care in the USA . He said he hoped not because he had relatives in Germany who tell him the system over there tells people to just die if they become diabetic like him.

I am inclined to believe this is not true. is my incliniation wrong?😉
 
I asked a gentleman in the healthcare field if he thought we would ever have true universal health care in the USA . He said he hoped not because he had relatives in Germany who tell him the system over there tells people to just die if they become diabetic like him.

I am inclined to believe this is not true. is my incliniation wrong?😉
That is not correct. In Germany, a month's supply of diabetic medication comes pretty close to free, with a 5-10 Euro co-pay, ie less than hour's pay at minimum wage. In the US, cost cannot exceed $35 for a patient on medicare; if you are privately insured or uninsured there is no upper limit, and some are obliged to pay or pay back exorbitant amounts. The only thing that keeps costs down is competition with the socialized aspect of our system, and care is still less than a third of the cost in Germany than here.
 
I asked a gentleman in the healthcare field if he thought we would ever have true universal health care in the USA . He said he hoped not because he had relatives in Germany who tell him the system over there tells people to just die if they become diabetic like him.
I am worried by how unsurprised I am that there are people who believe and spread such obviously propagandic nonsense. Though it's possible that the man does have relatives in Germany who told him that, as a wind-up, and that he just has no grasp of the German sense of humour, or of reality. I have noticed a non-trivial proportion of Americans who seem shocked to discover that other countries have such modern marvels as paved roads, indoor plumbing, television, the Internet, etc., etc., things that they genuinely seemed to imagine were an entirely American preserve.

It's incredibly easy to disprove, in the Internet age - most browsers will even translate German webpages into your preferred language. And yet still there are huge numbers of otherwise apparently sane people who are happy to believe it.

Then again, there are loads of people who believe that a global flood occurred within the last few thousand years. So perhaps I am guilty of wildly overestimating human intelligence.
 
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I wonder if there is professional pressure to lie about stuff sometimes. Its not like i couldnt check what the guy said out. If diabetics were just told to die in Germany dont you think they would bitch about it all over the internets?
 
I wonder if there is professional pressure to lie about stuff sometimes. Its not like i couldnt check what the guy said out. If diabetics were just told to die in Germany dont you think they would bitch about it all over the internets?
A "gentleman in the healthcare field" could easily be a sales rep for a big pharmaceutical company.

But yeah, the money to be made lying about health insurance and costs is gigantic. Especially in the USA.
Tom
 
I asked a gentleman in the healthcare field if he thought we would ever have true universal health care in the USA . He said he hoped not because he had relatives in Germany who tell him the system over there tells people to just die if they become diabetic like him.
I am worried by how unsurprised I am that there are people who believe and spread such obviously propagandic nonsense. Though it's possible that the man does have relatives in Germany who told him that, as a wind-up, and that he just has no grasp of the German sense of humour, or of reality. I have noticed a non-trivial proportion of Americans who seem shocked to discover that other countries have such modern marvels as paved roads, indoor plumbing, television, the Internet, etc., etc., things that they genuinely seemed to imagine were an entirely American preserve.

Well, I mean, everyone knows there aren't any paved roads in Australia. Just red dirts ones thar one must rent a truck and hire a ranger guide to traverse, yes? On account of the crocs in the muddy washes? And the giant spiders? And the drop bears?
 
Well, I mean, everyone knows there aren't any paved roads in Australia.
Well, obviously. It's almost impossible to pave a road when it's upside down.

But surely even Americans have heard of the German autobahns? They were the inspiration for Eisenhower's Interstate highways, and the guy who introduced them to Germany is a major source of inspiration to your current President too.
 
There are no Germans on this whole forum?
I have neighbors upstairs who have relatives in Germany.
Do you want me to ask?
 
Well, I mean, everyone knows there aren't any paved roads in Australia.
Well, obviously. It's almost impossible to pave a road when it's upside down.

But surely even Americans have heard of the German autobahns? They were the inspiration for Eisenhower's Interstate highways, and the guy who introduced them to Germany is a major source of inspiration to your current President too.
One of the outcomes of The Emu War was an agreement with the Emus that no new roads shall be paved.
 
I asked a gentleman in the healthcare field if he thought we would ever have true universal health care in the USA . He said he hoped not because he had relatives in Germany who tell him the system over there tells people to just die if they become diabetic like him.
I am worried by how unsurprised I am that there are people who believe and spread such obviously propagandic nonsense. Though it's possible that the man does have relatives in Germany who told him that, as a wind-up, and that he just has no grasp of the German sense of humour, or of reality.
It doesn't read to me like obviously propagandistic nonsense; it reads to me like obviously exasperation-based hyperbole. It doesn't take a specifically German sense of humor, either -- I've heard similar comments from Canadians. They're sarcastic complaints about the infamous wait times, from people who had the experience of the medical system getting around to mentioning that physician assisted suicide is available before it got around to providing the treatment they need. Of course that's going to become the butt of gallows humor. I don't know if German wait times are as bad as Canadian, but Germany has physician-assisted suicide too.
 
people who had the experience of the medical system getting around to mentioning that physician assisted suicide is available before it got around to providing the treatment they need.
Citation needed.

This sounds to me like obviously propagandic nonsense too.

There are long wait times in most UHC systems, but not for anything time critical. And certainly not for anything where assisted suicide would be an alternative to treatment, given that assisted suicide is typically only lawful when no effective treatment option is available, or all such options are a gamble and come with severe side effects.

If you have a condition like diabetes, where delay can cause significant further issues, and treatment is highly effective, you won't be made to wait under any of the systems with which I am familiar - and yet I frequently hear Americans (who have no direct personal experience with UHC) claim that lethal and/or severely debilitating wait times are common.

And I frequently hear of Americans being shocked to the core when they are forced to access healthcare in Europe, and discover that treatment is timely, excellent, and cheap (or even free).

The terrible consequences of UHC are as real, and as widely believed by Americans, as the terrible consequences of sin.
 
I asked a gentleman in the healthcare field if he thought we would ever have true universal health care in the USA . He said he hoped not because he had relatives in Germany who tell him the system over there tells people to just die if they become diabetic like him.

I am inclined to believe this is not true. is my incliniation wrong?😉
I do not trust UHC systems on the expensive stuff, nor on the quality of life stuff. But diabetes is neither. (Although the complications down the road can be.) I find the notion that they tell diabetics to go die bonkers.
 
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